Globalization

Definition

• Global industrialism or globalization is the impact of industrialization and its socioeconomic, political, and cultural consequences on the nonindustrialized societies of the world.

The Economics of Globalization

• Neo-Classical Economic Theory

Marginal Product Revenue Theory

Marginal Product Revenue Theory

• Equilibrium is achieved where supply and demand meet in a competitive market.

• The business world does not like equilibrium because it limits profits.

• The more unique the offering the more the company can charge in excess of their costs.

Marginal Product Revenue Theory• The Result: business will always seek

new markets and new products to offer.

The Global Village

• Since humans developed culture, we’ve moved toward globalization.

• We live in a world in which all regions are in contact with one another through the mass media, instantaneous communication, and highly integrated economic and political networks.

–Environment

–Demography

–Technology

–Economy

–Politics

–Ethnicity

–Religion

What changes is this having on the world today in terms of:

• Non-industrial societies depleted the environment by slash-and-burn horticulture, overgrazing, soil erosion, and species extinction.

• Industrialized societies have far more ways to damage the environment:

– Mechanized Agriculture• Agribusiness• Green Revolution• Genetic engineering • Loss of biodiversity

– Air Pollution• Ozone depletion• Acid rain• Global warming/greenhouse effect

Environmental Trends

Population Trends• Demographic-transitional model• Applied

– Palaeolithic = 10 million– 2000 A.D. = over 6 billion– 2050 A.D. = 10.2 billion?

• However, Western society has achieved ZPG (zero population growth) = people just replacing themselvesand some countries are shrinking

– One-Child policy in China

Globalization and Bands• Fourth world societies• Violent changes

– Ethnocide– Genocide

• Ethnographic examples:– Ju/’hoansi in Namibia and Botswana– Mbuti Pygmies– Siriono of Bolivia (500)

Globalization and Tribes• North American horticulturists

– Effects of contact– Forced relocation

• Manifest Destiny• Trail of Tears

• South American horticulturists– Yanomamö

• Pastoralists– Bedouins– Qashqa’i pastoralists

Iran

Chiefdoms, Resistance, Preservation

• Chiefdoms– Hawaiian Islands

• Resistance– Native Americans

– Melanesia and New Guinea

– Hawaiian Religion

• Preservation

• Latin America – Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (the rest)

• Africa – British (East and West), French (North and West), Dutch (South), Belgians (Central), and Germans (East)

• Caribbean – Primarily the Spanish, however, the British, French, and Dutch also obtained some land

Colonization – Who grabbed what

Colonialism• Latin America

– Columbus, conquistadors, Cortés

• Africa– Slave trade

• Caribbean– Plantations

• Middle East– Suez Canal

• Asia– Cash crops

Cash Crops of Colonization:Top – Tobacco in CubaMiddle – Rice in ChinaBottom – Sugar in Jamaica

• The colonized areas experienced great reductions in native populations.

Africa primarily through the slave trade, but also, through brutal means of control

Latin America and Caribbean primarily through the introduction of disease as well as the harsh imposed labor conditions

Demographic Changes

Changes - Demographic

• Mesoamerica, South America, Caribbean– Population decline (25 to 1.5 million people)

initially• Disease, labor effects, famine

– Population increase later• Medical and sanitation practices

• Middle East and Asia– Population growth, reduction of death rates

Changes - Religious

• Religious syncretism: Incorporation of pre-existing beliefs and practices into

Christianity – Africa and Pacific – Missionization

– Latin America - Catholic church

– Caribbean – Voodoo

– Middle East and Asia• Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism

The practice of vodoun on Haiti

• The introduction of Christianity

Religion and Secularization

• Secularization – religion becomes a private affair in industrial societies

• Persistence of religion– Marx predicted religion would disappear, but it

hasn’t

– Religious leaders emphasize cultural values, often of an ethnic group

– Revival because of secularization (fundamentalist movements)

– Helps people feel a sense of power over their lives in the face of global processes they can’t control

Changes - Political

• Latin America and Caribbean

– Political autonomy (Bolívar)

• Africa

– Independence movements

• Ghana (1957), Congo (1960), Kenya (1963)

• Apartheid in South Africa (Mandela, 1994)

• Middle East and Asia

– India – Gandhi, 1947

– China – Democracy to Communism (Mao, 1949)

Simon Bolívar

Nelson Mandela

Mahatma Gandhi

Mao Tse Dong

• Initially Indigenous control

• Colonial rule imposed upon acquisition

• Following WWII the colonies eventually become independent

Economic Changes

• Still OccurringComplete disruption of indigenous systemsIntroduction of the peasant into the global

marketplace (Open Peasant Communities)

Currently transitioning from peripheral to semi-peripheral, and slowly encroaching on core societies.

Changes - Economic• Americas, Africa, Caribbean

– Mining, plantation (hacienda) system

– Disruption of indigenous system

• Middle East and Asia– Cash crops superceded peasant

villages– More dependent on core societies

Finsch Diamond Mine, South Africa

Economic Trends• Multinational Corporations

– Promote spread of technical and cultural knowledge

– Reorganized production, might eventually manage global affairs

– Positives: capital and jobs

– Negatives: inhibits self-sufficiency, diverse economy (= neo-colonialism?)

• Case Study: Western Samoa– Low leasing/royalties

– Large employer, but only a shift of labor

– Peasants had no fall-back plan

House in Western Samoa

• Green Revolution in Shahidpur, India– One village switched from subsistence to

mechanized agriculture, anthropologist Murray Leaf documented it.

– Switch proved economically advantageous.

• Conservation of Wood in Haiti– Deforestation is a major problem for

peasant farmers.– Murray found that peasants feared they’d

lose land, livelihood if forests were replanted.

– solution: the introduction of fast-growing hardwoods

Farmers: India (above) and Haiti (below)

•Anthropology can help assess causes of changes in the world and help develop policies based on links between local practice and global processes.

Changes – Social Structure• Latin America

– Dyadic contract, patron-client ties, machismo

• Africa– Non-nuclear family, polygyny, patriarchy

• Middle East– Required marriage, divorce, complex gender

relations (compare Egypt to Saudi Arabia)

• Asia– Communism in China muted patriarchy and

some kinship ties

– Open marriage options, women’s right to work

Traditional purdah

Ethnic Trends

• People don’t think government cares about individuals

• Ethnonationalism as a reaction to global processes (Québécois, Scots)

• Ethnic group is a refuge from globalization

Ethnonationalism

• Definition: secessionist developments

• Arose in European-colonized areas, in eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union

• Response to the trend of globalization, the McWorld tendency

• Cosmopolitanism

Indigenous rights

What does indigenous mean?

UN definition‘Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them, and by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant or colonial situation.

also includes isolated or marginal populations not colonized or conquered

also the idea that they are placed under the state structure which incorporates mainly the national, social and cultural characteristics of the dominant society.

who is indigenous is decided by government ministers

national governments have different criteria because indigenous groups may be able to claim state benefits

By such means governments are able to keep control over the character and size of their indigenous populations

Indigenous Groups and Government

In Canada the federal Indian Act. defines an Indian as "a person who, … is registered as an Indian or is entitled to be registered as an Indian." Persons registered under the Indian Act are referred to as Registered Indian Status. To be eligible to receive benefits under the Indian Act, individuals must be registered in the Indian Register, which is maintained by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND).

In USA you have to be registered which means you have to be able to trace your relationship to an ancestor who was registered in 1906

indigenous peoples themselves often reject these state definitions and emphasize culture and self identification and distinctiveness

RAIN-IN-THE-FACESioux

Frank Fiske c. 1900

300 million indigenous people

about half of the counties in the world have an indigenous population whose right to self determination is being denied

indigenous peoples are generally a demographic minority

Native Americans 1.5% of Canadian population

Australian aborigines less than 2% of the population

USA native Americans about .5%

Sweden less than .1%

Populations

The struggle in the last two decades has centred on land. Land contains their history and sense of identity and it ensures their economic viability as an independent peoplefor indigenous peoples land is often the seat of their spirituality and has a sacred quality generally absent from Western thinking

Ayers Rock/ Uluru, the world's largest monolith and an Aboriginal sacred site located in the Kata Tjuta National Park, which is owned and run by the local Aboriginals. The Australian government handed ownership of the land back to the Aboriginals some years ago.

Relation to Land

land is revered and respected and its inalienability is reflected in virtually every indigenous philosophy

They see Westerners as trying to gain dominion over the land, while they see land as a living entity which can neither be claimed for oneself or subjugated.

Across the Continent: "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"Frances F. Palmer, 1868

Buffalo Hunt under the White Wolf Skin: An Indian Strategem on the

Level PrairiesAfter George Catlin, undated

A spiritual rapport with the land is common in the philosophy of indigenous peoples, but is at odds with the prevailing materialist notions of Western society

West sees that land which is not owned by title or deed is unclaimed and can be seized,

natural resources that are left untouched by indigenous peoples are considered as wasted and are exploited;

economic activities which do not extract the greatest commercial benefits are judged inefficient and primitive

The common way of life of indigenous peoples, one that has a reverence for the land, is threatened by this attitude of cultural superiority and materialism.

As a consequence indigenous peoples all over the world face a similar struggle to protect their land, their culture.

California's Native American nations were decimated first by the diseases the 49ers brought with them, then by the new California state government, which put bounties on the heads of native people.

The Yanomami, had little contact with the rest of Brazil until the arrival of the first garimpciros (gold miners) in the 1970s. By 1987 an estimated 80,000 miners had flocked to the area, polluting rivers and spreading malaria. Decimated by disease, the number of Yanomamis living in Brazil (many also live in Venezuela) fell from 20,000 to about 8,000 in just 20 years. In Aug 1993 23 Yanomami Indians were massacred by goldminers.. The dead included men, women and children who were decapitated with machetes

In the words of Yanomami representative "What we do not want are the mining companies, which destroy the forest, and the garimpciros, who bring so many diseases. These whites must respect our Yanomami land. The garimpciros bring guns, alcohol, prostitution, and destroy nature wherever they go. The machines spill oil into the rivers and kill the life existing in them and the people and animals who depend on them. For us, this is not progress."

face discrimination and suffer disadvantage less access to medical care since live mostly in rural areas more likely to be unemployed than the majority paid less than comparable workers and generally in lower paid manual jobs in nearly all countries which have an indigenous population, governments have created special agencies for their welfare more often than not these bodies serve as mechanisms of control over indigenous minorities and thereby compound the discrimination talking place elsewhere

Situation of Indigenous Peoples

1990, the Supreme Court held that Oregon could deny unemployment compensation to two Native Americans dismissed from their jobs for smoking peyote as part of tribal religious rituals under the state’s narcotics laws ~

receive less opportunities for schooling basic education is often hampered by an absence of any lingua franca --- in Brazil 120 different languages education is usually in the dominant language locations means that education is inaccessible, especially if nomadic

where formal education is available it is often antagonistic to the traditions of indigenous people It does not impart indigenous culture and few efforts are made to accommodate to the needs of indigenous communities

education is often seen as a means of gaining control of indigenous peoples and subverting their culture Missionaries, teachers and governments have recognized that the way to civilise their indigenous communities was to take hold of the children before their parents could teach them the tribal way of life.

Indigenous cultures often thought to be inferior and needed to be bred out of them

Assimilation or partial assimilation of indigenous peoples has led to a concomitant despair at the loss of traditional social cohesion

This, coupled with an understandable disillusion with the opportunities offered by the wider economy has created serious problems among indigenous communities

violent and accidental deaths and high suicide rates

a universal problem is that in time their culture will disappear

alcoholism and prostitution

The Issues1. .Self-determination

tied in with all aspects of life - political, economic, social, and cultural-how people choose to live

seeking to assert their political voice along with their economic, cultural and social perpetuation and development the most problematic topic

Questions the legitimacy of the settler regimes

the establishment of Nunavut may be an indicator of change

2. Intellectual property rights for medicines developed from plants and traditional medical practices of indigenous peoples

In most cases no compensation is given to the tribe which had preserved and actually discovered the medicine.

A proposal to reform the process to ensure compensation to the indigenous people involved was recently discussed and rejected by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

3. Control over the exploitation of natural resources located on the traditional indigenous lands.

At present these resources are usually claimed by the settler society

which gets any fees or profits from exploitation without regard to the needs or desires of the indigenous peoples;

The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona

The ownership is:U.S.Bureau of Reclamation 24.3% , SRP 21.7% LA Dept. of Water & Power 21.2% , Arizona Public Service Company 14.0%, Nevada Power 11.3%, Tucson Electric Power 7.5%

4. Preservation of cultural traditions and languages

a high priority for many indigenous peoples who are usually a minority in the settler society.

Most majority societies have been extremely reluctant to allow the use of indigenous languages in formal governmental activities.

There does appear to be movement toward greater acceptance of this demand

Whale Hunting Among the Makah• Place: Neah Bay, on the

Olympic Peninsula in Washington State

• May 17, 1999- 1st Gray Whale Killed in 75 Year by Indigenous Whale Hunters

• Media Coverage Explosion• Debates upon Two Recurrent

Themes: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Impacts of Whaling

The Whale Debate

Questions to Consider:

1. What were the Makah trying to protect by returning to whale hunting?

2. What were environmental groups who opposed the Makah whale hunting trying to protect?

5. Compensation for the theft of land and property by the settler societies.

The totem pole is from Star House in Massett village on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), Canada. Now at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

Includes return of artefacts now in museums

also return of skeletons and the right to bury them according to tradition

Green = unsettled land claims

Yellow= settled claims

Organge= treaty boundaries

Indigenous rights and International Law

International law does not consider indigenous peoples rights separately from the concerns of the general matters of international law.

generally simply as issues of human rights

the specific concerns of indigenous peoples have been submerged by the dominant colonial societies

which control access to domestic and international legal agendas or access

International Legislation

1945 The principal of self-determination of peoples was embodied as a central purpose of the United Nations in its Charter

From 1957 until 1982, the ILO was the only international law body with any concern with indigenous peoples rights.

In 1957 the ILO promulgated Convention 107 on Living and Working Conditions of Indigenous Populations.

This document tended to reflect the views of the settler societies

and promoted the absorption of indigenous populations into the settler societies.

1982 the Working Group on Indigenous Populations Created (WGIP) --- the principal UN group concerned with indigenous peoples rights.

has called for a "comprehensive study of the problem of discrimination against indigenous populations".

The main project of the WGIP has been the drafting of a Universal Declaration on Indigenous Rights.

has rejected the assimilationist orientation of ILO Convention 107,

in favour of recognition of the independent nature of the existence of indigenous peoples.

sets out guarantees of cultural rights and called for recognition of "collective property" rights and compensation

deals with indigenous economic and social systems

gives standards for self-determinism by indigenous peoples (controversial since the settler states do not desire to lose their control over indigenous peoples' land) Particular objection to paragraph which describes a collective right to "autonomy".

define a dispute resolution process

describes the property rights of indigenous peoples

This has not been well received by all nations

Indigenous peoples and Modern Communications

The Internet is playing an expanding role in supporting the self-determination of peoples and emergent nations.Many peoples are dispersed, having been forced away from their homeland for military, political or economic reasons. Internet makes possible a certain level of cohesion allowing Self Determination movement to form and assert itself. means that territoriality, in one sense, is not nearly as important in the creation of feelings of community.Self-determination struggles may benefit from the ability to form ''virtual communities.''

e.g. Tibet Online http://www.tibet.org/tibet.org/index.html “operated by the international Tibet Support Group community, providing information on the plight of Tibet and serving as a virtual community …. dedicated to ending the suffering of the Tibetan people by returning the right of self-determination to the Tibetan people. “

For educational purposes.

In Barrow, Alaska, the Inuit have built a $48 million system that allows two-way interactive video.

When the temperature is 40 below zero, high school teachers in Barrow can continue teaching the kids at their homes.

To develop Indigenous Networks

indigenous peoples have much in common in their struggles for political identity, voice, and recognition, and sovereignty over their land and natural resources.

the establishment of relations between various peoples allows sharing experiences, resources, and insights so that those who have learned in one way or another can share their knowledge convey their culture to the world

and by co-ordinating actions for solidarity and enhanced effectiveness.

The Internet provides opportunities for such networking.

To give people a voice

There's been so much written about native people, but none of it by native people

a few groups have created their own Web sites and on-line discussion groups

Eg NativeWeb (http://www.nativeweb.org),

contains extensive information about a range of native subjects, geographic regions, and cultural groups, along with material on native literature, languages, newsletters and journals, organizations, and bibliographies.

having a voice allows greater representation of one's own people and provides a forum for international attention

To educate non indigenous people so there can be better understanding between their 2 worlds Information can be used to sway world public opinion

Provides access to Information Resources

Documents specifically related to indigenous issues can be found at the Fourth World Documentation Project,

organized by the Center For World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) in 1992.

The Kayapo

horticulturalists living in the rain forests of Eastern Brazil.

Mid 1970s 700 of the 800 died of disease. total population: 4,000

Missionaries provided medicine in exchange for the Kayapo's adopting western clothes, building their village along a street, and suppressing their ceremonials

A state organization controlled their trade and communication with the outside, and embezzled their cash from the nut crop

The Kayapo felt dependent and in a situation over which they had no control

The politicization of 'culture

This Kayapo chief wears a feather headdress which establishes his rank.. He is smoking natural tobacco in his traditional pipe made out of ironwood.

The anthropologist proceeds as if what is being studied is 'a culture'. In the process, what people had hitherto experienced as an embedded way of life becomes objectified and verbalized - invented - as 'culture'.

The Kayapo did not see it like that: it was just the way they did things

They did not have a concept through which to objectify and label their everyday life as a 'culture'.

they needed such a concept to deal with their situation: to give them an identity and distinguish themselves as a 'culture' on a par with other indigenous people and vis-à-vis the dominant national society in an inter-ethnic state system.

A Kayapo chieftain wears the traditional botoque through his lower lip. The plate is made out of balsa wood, and is a sign of courage meant to frighten the enemy.

The Kayapo realized that what missionaries and state administrators used as justification for subordination and exploitation, another set of Westerners valued highly.

'Culture', which had seemed an impediment, now appeared as a resource to negotiate their co-existence with the dominant society

After a Disappearing World documentary was made, the Kayapo sought further documentaries so as to reach the sympathetic elements in the west.

In 1989 the Kayapó protested a government proposal to build hydroelectric dams along the Xingu River. Their appeal aroused worldwide support and the project was shelved. If it had been implemented, the damming would have flooded much of their territory

When they arranged to meet the Brazilian government to oppose the Altamira dam, they choreographed themselves for the western media in order to gain support of the western audience and add pressure on the government.

Gone were the shorts, T-shirts and haircuts that had appeased the missionaries; with men's bare chests, body ornament and long ritual dances, the Kayapo performed their 'culture' as a strategy in their increasingly confident opposition to the state.

by the 1990s the Kayapo had obtained videos, radios, pharmacies, vehicles, drivers and mechanics, an aeroplane to patrol their land, and even their own missionaries.

Young Kayapo girls painted with Jemipapo, a black paint which is made from Jemipapo fruit crushed and mixed with fish oil.

Kayapo had learnt to objectify their everyday life as 'culture' (in the old sense) and use it as a resource in negotiations with government and international agencies.

Kayapo politicians seem to have been fully aware of the constructedness of 'culture'

They presented themselves as a homogeneous and bounded group

They defined 'culture' for themselves and used it to set the terms of their relations with the 'outside world'

In a history spanning forty years, missionaries, government officials, the Kayapo, anthropologists, international agencies and non government agencies had all competed for the power to define a key concept, 'culture'.

Missionaries and government agencies initially had used the concept to define an entity that could be acted upon, producing disempowerment and dependency among the Kayapo.

The Kayapo strategy to wrest control of this concept from missionaries and government officials and turn it against them was part of a struggle not just for identity but for physical, economic and political survival.

Kayapo girls dancing during the Jemipapo ceremony. Note the girl at the lower center with the traditional Kayapo haircut.

Kayapo leaders have used ethnographic film to assert their own definition of their 'culture' and used the strategies others have used against them to challenge the processes that have marginalized them

If the cultural world is shrinking is anthropology losing its subject matter

Exotic cultures untouched are non existent

Soon cultures of the world are homogenized into a single culture

Topical trends

1. Cultural Survival of Indigenous Peoples

N Americans are concerned with preserving their cultures

Concern is not so much a matter of anthropological research as it is for basic human rights issues.

2. The study of complex societiesA growing interest in applied anthropology after the affluent decade of the 1950s and 1960s witnessed the rediscovery of ethnicity and poverty, birth of which were defined as urban problems.

Therefore policy makers have been more inclined to use the findings of anthropologists to help some of these social problems at home.

Research opportunities in other cultures have diminished – newly independent countries reluctant to let western anthropologists in

Funding problems

study small ethnic communities, socialized occupation groups, or other sub cultural groups which operate in within the complex societies.

3. The Greater Use of Anthropological Knowledge

So that anthropological insights will have an impact on policy makers.

Development agencies

Companies

Governments